IRS Extends Tax Deadline After Payment Website Fails

WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The IRS is giving all taxpayers an extra day to file after its website went down on deadline day.

The IRS says the new tax deadline is now midnight Wednesday. It said no additional paperwork is needed to get the extension.

The agency's website for making payments and gaining access to other key services crashed for most of the day Tuesday. The website appeared to be back to normal late Tuesday.

In a message on its website, the IRS said "throughout the system outage, taxpayers were still able to file their tax returns electronically through their software providers and Free File. Taxpayers using paper to file and pay their taxes at the deadline were not affected by the system issue."

In the statement, acting IRS Commissioner David Kautter apologized "for the inconvenience this system issue caused for taxpayers."

"The IRS appreciates everyone's patience during this period," Kautter said. "The extra time will help taxpayers affected by this situation."

The agency did not give an immediate explanation, but said in a statement that certain IRS systems were "experiencing technical difficulties."

Tax day fell on April 17 this year because April 15 was a Sunday and April 16 was Emancipation Day, a holiday in Washington, D.C.

(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

In:
• Internal Revenue Service